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LARYSA
New Member
July 20, 2025
Question

Missing ‘Show behind transparent areas’ option in Drop shadow effect

  • July 20, 2025
  • 16 replies
  • 690 views

Good day!
Why was the option Show behind transparent area removed in the Drop Shadow effect?
This made the work very difficult (
 

[The title of this post was updated by a moderator from “It was good function” to “Missing ‘Show behind transparent areas’ option in Drop shadow effect” on 20-Jul-2025.]

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    16 replies

    Tom Reem
    Figmate
    Figmate
    July 20, 2025

    Hey there ​@LARYSA — welcome to Figma Forum, and thanks for bringing this up!

    Just to clarify: At this time, the Inner shadow does not support Show behind transparent areas, but the Drop shadow option does. Does that help get you where you need to be?

    Show behind transparent areas available for Drop shadow, not Inner shadow.

    If you specifically need this to work with inner shadows, could you share a bit more about how you’re using it and how not having this option impacts your workflow? I’d like to surface more of your experience with the product team — thanks for your help with this information.

    We’re always evaluating improvements based on designer feedback, and we’ll continue updating this article as things evolve: Apply effects to layers → Show drop shadows through transparent layers.

    LARYSA
    LARYSAAuthor
    New Member
    August 2, 2025

    Hi!

    I didn’t say about Inner shadow, just about Drop shadow. Not just me have this problem.

    Look at screen

    andrea-hg
    Active Member
    August 3, 2025

    I’m having this issue as well.

    It does difficult things a lot 😕

     

     

    Nellya
    Power Member
    August 4, 2025

    I’m having this issue as well.

    It does difficult things a lot 😕

     

     

    It seems that your frame doesn’t have transparent areas, so it doesn’t have the Show behind transparent areas option either

     

    TMS
    New Member
    August 12, 2025

    I am also having this issue when I first enable Drop Shadow effect on an object with transparency, but noticed that the Show behind transparent areas option will appear only after I DESELECT the object, select it again, and then reopen the Drop Shadow window. This only started happening relatively recently, it used to just be available right away.

    Tom Reem
    Figmate
    Figmate
    August 12, 2025

    Thanks for sharing that GIF, ​@Nellya — it’s super helpful in showing how to enable this effect.

     

    @andrea-hg, ​@LARYSA, and ​@TMS — I wanted to check in: Did Nellya’s reply help clear things up? Also, so I can share clear insights with our product team, is the main challenge that this change adds extra steps to your workflow, or that it’s blocking you from achieving the outcome you need? Thanks again for sharing your experience.

    TMS
    New Member
    August 12, 2025

    Thanks for sharing that GIF, ​@Nellya — it’s super helpful in showing how to enable this effect.

     

    @andrea-hg, ​@LARYSA, and ​@TMS — I wanted to check in: Did Nellya’s reply help clear things up? Also, so I can share clear insights with our product team, is the main challenge that this change adds extra steps to your workflow, or that it’s blocking you from achieving the outcome you need? Thanks again for sharing your experience.

     

    In my case, I’m working with straight PNG’s copied from the web or Photoshop, so transparency does exist in these objects and that option does not appear until I deselect and reselect the object.

     

    It’s not blocking me from any outcome, it’s just kind of an annoying extra step that didn’t exist before. As of a few weeks ago I could turn on Drop Shadow on these images and the transparency option would appear right away.

     

     

    Tom Reem
    Figmate
    Figmate
    August 13, 2025

    Thank you so much for sharing that GIF, ​@TMS — it really helps illustrate where the process could feel a bit more involved over time. I’ve passed along your feedback to our product team, and we’ll keep you posted with any updates or smoother workflow suggestions that come out of the discussions. Appreciate your patience as we continue iterating based on your experience.

    ksn
    Figmate
    Community Support
    August 13, 2025

    Hi all! Tom has gone on a well-deserved break, so I wanted to drop an update:

    The engineering team located the issue and has a fix set to deploy on Friday. Not sure the exact time, but if I hear* news that it’s been pushed, I’ll stop in again to let you know 🙏🏻

     
    andrea-hg
    Active Member
    August 15, 2025

    I guess my example was indeed a bad one 😅 I just took a quick screenshot without thinking through. But yes, I had the same issue that TMS demonstrated, except the option does not show even after deselecting and selecting again. 

    Glad to hear the issue has been located.